Five Times Kara Told Someone She Missed Them
by Serrafina
Summary: She shouldn’t be puttering around her quarters like some lovesick fool, but she can’t seem to remember how to be herself when he’s not around.


Five Times Kara Told Someone She Missed Them

Disclaimer: Don't own 'em.

Characters/Pairings: Kara/Zak, Kara/Helo friendship, Kara/Sam, Kara/Lee, Kara!

Spoilers: through Unfinished Business

AN1: Thanks to Tracyj23 for the beta!

AN2: The title is grammatically incorrect, for which I am very sorry. But it couldn't be helped.

* * *

**I. Door**

Zak's been gone about thirty-six hours. Wilderness training: drop a bunch of cadets in the middle of nowhere and see what happens. Kara knows the drill. She also knows that it could be days before she sees him again. It's not unheard of for cadets to be out there for three days, and when he gets back he'll likely just want to sleep for a week.

It's not a big deal. Given their schedules and the regulations, they've often had to go days, even a week at times, without seeing each other in any unofficial capacity. She shouldn't be bothered by this. She should go out, get a drink, have some fun. She shouldn't be puttering around her quarters like some lovesick fool, but she can't seem to remember how to be herself when he's not around.

She's languishing in front of the television set when someone knocks on her door. She opens it to find him in the same clothes he was wearing the day before yesterday, looking quite attractively scruffy. He gives her a tired grin and says, "Missed me?"

She tugs him inside, spinning him around and kicking the door shut. "Like crazy," she replies before kissing him to tell him just how much.

His smile widens and he wraps his arms around her. She laughs and relaxes into his embrace for a few moments before reality (and her sense of smell) intrudes.

"Shower," she commands, "then bed."

He chuckles into her neck and says, "I missed you too."

It isn't until she's drifting off to sleep that she realizes she's never told anyone she missed them before. It's not that she's never missed anyone—she's done plenty of that—but they've never come back for her to say it. And she's certain no one has ever said it to her.

She sucks in a breath and presses herself closer to him. He mumbles something incoherent into her hair and hugs her in his sleep. She's grateful no one can see her in that moment, so pathetically happy.

**II. Ruins **

She feels hands and tries to muster the strength to resist. She has a mission and a tenacious grip of life; she refuses to be taken by the enemy.

She feels pain.

She can't get her body to work and the hands are still there, moving her...cradling her. She finally gets her eyes open and the sight that greets her is achingly familiar. He's grinning the way he always used to when she did something crazy that managed to surprise even him, and she tries to give him an answering grin but frak, _everything_ hurts and she can barely breathe.

"Okay, okay, come here," he's murmuring at her. "Okay."

She thinks, for one dazed moment, that everything's always okay with him.

"I can't believe it," he's saying. "You are like the last person I expected to see."

She finally rallies her wits and her tongue and gasps out, "I could say the same thing about you."

He gives her a breathless nod and pulls her up more. "You okay?"

She's still having trouble breathing and everything still hurts but she gives him a nod and it's mostly true. She'd given him up for dead, along with the human race. She'd felt his absence, but in a muted way, like a bludgeon rather than a spike. She'd been far too wrung out to selfishly wish for her friend back. Now that she has him, in the ruins of a city where she used to live, she begins to feel that maybe the gods are looking out for her after all.

He lugs her disobedient body over to the nearest wall and helps her to stay upright more or less on her own. She smiles at him through the blood and assorted grime, and says, "I missed you."

Then she's not sure who's hugging whom, but it feels great. Here, in this wasteland, she's found the one man who's never let her down.

Then she sees Sharon.

**III. Bulkhead**

She never says it so that Sam can hear.

When his voice rings clear through the trees on Caprica, the first thing she thinks is "typical." And then she thinks that she knew him for a week in distinctly atypical circumstances. But she can't deny the wave of relief, nor can she stop herself from rushing to meet him and wrapping her arms around him. He feels good in her arms, even through the layers of clothing and protective gear, and he smells the way she remembered.

"The Cylons struck this morning," he says. "I lost half my crew." She came just hours too late. But before she can find the blame in his eyes, the telltale sounds of Cylon Centurions and oncoming bullets interrupt.

Then she's too busy trying to stay free and sane to be glad he's with her, and nothing will be worth it if they take her to a farm. But by the grace of the gods, she lives to fight another day. They're back on Galactica soon enough and she's stammering through introductions like some blushing fourteen-year-old.

That night, after the celebrating, she wakes up in her bunk with an unfamiliar presence packed in beside her. It takes her a moment to realize she's not dreaming and to remember what's happened. She looks at his sleeping face for a long while.

"I missed you," she whispers, with only the bulkhead for a witness.

**IV. Ring**

She walked into the ring full of anger. She had let her rage (against him, against herself) boil up and over and exact its price in sweat and blood.

Whoever said Lee Adama never lost control was clearly a fool. That, or maybe she was just special.

Her anger hasn't withered, but she's bone-achingly tired. She continues now because she can't quit, dredging up age-old fury from gods-only-know-when for gods-only-know-what crime. Lee knocks her down and she gets up again. She's _not _letting go this time.

Then he's knocking his gloves against her back and she struggles in the awkward embrace, wrestling for better footing and shoving her gloved fists into him as hard as she can. She doesn't even know why anymore but she's so close to him—_so close_—and if it's fight or flight she's going to frakking fight this time.

"I missed you," she says when she can't move anymore. She's exhausted and aching and drained of her fury; her brain cells have been so knocked about that she can't think of anything else to say.

Apparently he can't either because he mumbles through the bloody mouthguard, "I missed you too."

Just like that, she's almost happy.

**V. Canopy**

Kara Thrace never has been able to keep her feet on the ground. So it's a surprise to everyone when she manages to keep her feet firmly planted for nearly a year without killing anyone.

It surprises no one, however, when she gets clearance to take off as soon as the doctor says she can.

There's the unforgettable rush of launch and g-forces pressing against her skin and then she's there in the black, amongst the stars.

She breathes a sigh of relief. Her right hand grips the controls and her left gently touches the canopy.

"I missed you." She says it clearly, so the gods can hear.


End file.
